Recognizing refugees: Youth service project raises awareness and gives aid to refugees

GILLETTE —The Gillette College Pronghorn Center was filled with more than 100 youth and youth leaders who raised awareness and prepped backpacks for refugees on Wednesday evening as part of an “Interfaith Youth, Refugee Service Project.”
The project brought youth from three churches together — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, St. Matthew’s Catholic Church and New Life Wesleyan Church. Angi Klamm, Gillette’s stake communication director for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said the planning for the event began six months ago.
During the service project, the youth heard from Bertine Bahige, the principal at Stocktrail Elementary who came to America as a refugee from the Congo, and Oksana Barchenko, a Ukrainian refugee who recently made her way out of the country.
Klamm said that Barchenko spoke to everyone gathered about the importance of kindness and treating those who may look differently or talk differently from others with the same love. Bahige walked the youth through his life’s story, from escaping from the Congo to the processes he went through to become an American citizen and create his life here.
After the speakers, everyone joined together to fill 50 backpacks with the necessities refugees would need when leaving their country. The items included things like a blanket, snacks, toiletries and water.
“We just wanted them to think about and see what they (refugees) might need in a backpack,” Klamm said. “And understanding our lives could change at any moment.”
The groups also organized the event to bring awareness to the fact that Wyoming remains the only state in America that does not offer a refugee resettlement program or any way to help refugees within the state. Klamm didn’t know that Wyoming had no way to help refugees before starting the project and now hopes legislation can change to care for those in need.
Without state backing, she still believes that events like these can help in some way.
“Even without help from the state, I still feel like we can find ways to help and come together,” she said.
Since Wyoming has no center for refugees, the group will send all of the backpacks to Church World Service, a nonprofit organization that helps those in need.
“They will distribute (the backpacks) where the greatest need is,” Klamm said.
The project also worked as a platform for youth to learn about Just Serve.
“It (the platform) is raising awareness to look for opportunities to serve and volunteer in different communities,” Klamm said.
All of the backpacks and items for the backpacks came from community members and those who chose to help on justserve.org and all of the tie-blankets were put together by the youth.
Mariana Garcia, the hispanic ministry director at St. Matthew’s, Dani Tew, the state representative for justserve.org and Sarah McCormick, the youth pastor at New Life all pitched in to bring the event and youth together, as well.
 
 
This story was published on July 23, 2022.